Saturday, November 5, 2011

A Hydra Rises

The publishing co-op is off to an exuberant start. With 29 members (curiously a quarter of whom are in the UK) we had a tidal wave of introductions and discussion on the list serve—so much indeed that we had to move to a new private forum board just to keep up with the topic tangle.

Although I had to fight a moment of “what monster have I unleashed”, I am more excited than a cathouse on a Saturday night. (With my grand dad off to the Elysian Field, I feel like I am going to have to step it up with my bombastic Texan colloquialisms.)

Nothing is really set in stone yet as far as vision and structure—like any new voluntary project there is always some hashing out to do about what “it” is exactly. The fact that we DIYers tend to be more like a herd of cats than a bee hive only underscores that need.

Still it looks like we heading to some rough consensus already on a few things. Courtesy to -C we may have a mascot—and a logo shortly from some of the more artistically inclined—the dreaded and entirely appropriate hydra.

Again if you are interested in participating in this brave new world of cooperative DIY hanky panky, drop me a line at kutalik dot gmail dot the com and I will set you up with an introduction to the list and forum.

"Humans they were, of a sort, though I did not consider them so. They were short and stocky, with broad heads too large for their scrawny bodies. Their hair was snaky and stringy, their faces broad and square, with flat noses, hideously slanted eyes, a thin gash for a mouth, and pointed ears. They wore the skins of beasts, as did I, but these hides were but crudely dressed. They bore small bows and flint-tipped arrows, flint knives and cudgels. And they conversed in a speech as hideous as themselves, a hissing, reptilian speech that filled me with dread and loathing."